Impressed, I moved the target back to 550 meters. Rebracket the 18-inch tall white piece of paper. Verify — 550 meters on 5.5 power. And shoot.

At this greater range, the 5-shot string landed about 8 inches low, and the shooter clumsily neglected to compensate the .5 mils for wind, so they landed left of the target in about a 7-inch group.

Even so, for having done no calculations, these shots were all kill shots on any elk. All would have “rung the gong” had I been shooting at steel.

I expressed the opinion in Part 1 of this review, that the limiting factor with the scope is the thickness of the reticle. Out beyond 400 yards it took some doing to bracket the target precisely in the center of the thicker crosshairs to get an accurate reading and cam adjustment on the scope. Very doable, but it took some practice.

That being said, the Leatherwood ART M1000 scope lives up to its claims. It gets you on target fast, with no calculations. I’m still amazed that, for a retail price around $400, this scope can make any shooter effective at virtually any distance — even me.

My only regret was not having access to a 1,000 yard range to really test it out. However, with this scope’s price point and ease of use, I believe it is most ideal for hunters heading out west, perhaps for a plains antelope hunt, or mule deer and elk in the mountains. It excels at quickly giving you center-chest hits on deer-sized game and does so especially well at ranges from 250-500 yards.

Users of high-end mil/mil tactical scopes might say the ART M1000 is not a precision accuracy scope. I quite agree, but that’s missing the point. The point is that what it gives up in precision, it gains in speed and ease of use. It’s a practical scope that I think will be welcomed by rifle hunters who need to take that shot no matter the range when it presents itself.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Having shot with this unique optic, it’s plain to see why the Viet Cong so feared it. Jim Leatherwood’s original design allowed our soldiers to frame, aim and shoot — without any complex mathematical or ballistic calculations — in the heat of battle under the most extreme stress. And by golly they hit what they were aiming at. Yes indeed, it truly is a “no math” long-range scope that works as advertised.

Want to get your hands on an ART-1000 scope? Click here to buy at GunDigestStore.com!

Retail: $459.00Your price: $391.00
You save: $68.00 (15%)

All the shooter has to do is place the reticle on the target, zoom in to FRAME an area of known size (i.e. the 18_ height of a buck’s chest cavity), AIM, and squeeze the trigger to SHOOT. It all takes less than 5 seconds, and the shooter’s eye never leaves the scope! When the shooter frames an 18_ or 1 meter target using the brackets on the reticle, the scope will automatically range the target and compensate for bullet trajectory for distances of 250 to 1,000 meters. Buy Now